, now!" says the kindergartner.... They
are given with an enthusiasm that brings the neighbors to the windows,
and Benny, bursting with pride, blushes to the roots of his hair. The
children stop at three, however, and have let off a tremendous amount
of steam in the operation. Any wholesome device which accomplishes
this result is worthy of being perpetuated.... A draggled, forsaken
little street-cat sneaks in the door, with a pitiful mew. (I'm sure I
don't wonder! if one were tired of life, this would be just the place
to take a fresh start.) The children break into the song, "I Love
Little Pussy, Her Coat is so Warm," and the kindergartner asks the
small boy with the great lunch pail if he wouldn't like to give
the kitty a bit of something to eat. He complies with the utmost
solemnity, thinking this the queerest community he ever saw.... A
broken-winged pigeon appears on the window-sill and receives his
morning crumb; and now a chord from the piano announces a change of
programme. The children troop to their respective rooms fairly warmed
through with happiness and good will. Such a pleasant morning start to
some who have been "hustled" out of a bed that held several too many
in the night, washed a trifle (perhaps!), and sent off without a kiss,
with the echo of a sick mother's wails, or a father's oaths, ringing
in their ears!

After a few minutes of cheerful preparation, all are busily at work.
Two divisions have gone into tiny, "quiet rooms" to grapple with the
intricacies of mathematical relations. A small boy, clad mostly in red
woolen suspenders, and large, high-topped boots, is passing boxes of
blocks. He is awkward and slow. The teacher could do it more quietly
and more quickly, but the kindergarten is a school of experience where
ease comes, by and by, as the lovely result of repeated practice....
We hear an informal talk on fractions, while the cube is divided into
its component parts, and then see a building exercise "by direction."

In the other "quiet room" they are building a village, each child
constructing, according to his own ideas, the part assigned him. One
of them starts a song, and they all join in--

"Oh! builders we would like to be,
So willing, skilled, and strong;
And while we work so cheerily,
The time will not seem long."

"If we all do our parts well, the whole is sure to be beautiful," says
the teacher. "One rickety, badly made building will spoil our village.
I'm going